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Ukrainan and Russian Wines

Ukraine

Recently much effort has been invested in the area around Odessa and Nikolajev, close to the Black Sea, and around

Dnjeprpetrovsk on the Dnjepr, to replace the old but highly productive varieties of grapes with better quality new ones such as Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon. The sparkling wines from the Crimea, of which in reality most come from Moldova, were a household name. The current economic uncertainty of the Ukraine leaves littlepositive that can be said at the moment.

Russia

During the time of Perestroika the Russian government carried out a policy of dissuading people from their wide-scale problem of vodka drinking. The wine industry was subsidised and consumption of wine (instead of vodka) was encouraged. Enormous wine plants or Kombinats produced an never-ending flow of syrupy, full-bodied, and often heavily oxidised white and red wines, ranging from somewhat on the dry side to extremely sweet. These wines were produced in the Black Sea region, around the Sea of Azov (Krasnodar), the Don basin, Stavropol, and the Crimea, and also utilised imported bulk wine from Bulgaria, Moldova Hungary, and Algeria.